The subject matter herein relates generally to electrical connector assemblies.
Due to their favorable electrical characteristics, coaxial cables and connectors have grown in popularity for interconnecting electronic devices and peripheral systems. The connectors include an inner conductor coaxially disposed within an outer conductor, with a dielectric material separating the inner and outer conductors. A typical application utilizing coaxial cable connectors is a radio-frequency (RF) application having RF connectors designed to work at radio frequencies in the UHF and/or VHF range.
Typically, one or more connectors are mounted to a circuit board of an electronic device at an input/output port of the device and extend through an exterior housing of the device for connection with a coaxial cable connector. Some systems include a plurality of connectors held in a common housing. One particular example of a system that uses multiple connectors is a backplane module having a plurality of board mounted connectors with a separate mating assembly for mating with a daughtercard module. The mating assembly includes a housing holding a plurality of coaxial cable connectors, which are connected to the board mounted connectors by a cable assembly having lead end connectors individually terminated to corresponding board mounted connectors. The daughtercard module is mated with the mating assembly.
Typical backplane systems using RF connectors are not without disadvantages. For instance, each of the lead end connectors are typically individually and separately mated with the board connectors, which is time consuming and increases the cost of assembly. Additionally, the spacing between the housing of the mating assembly and the board connectors may be very small, such as less than one inch, making the assembly process difficult and time consuming. Manipulating a large number of connections for mating also increases time and complexity.
Some module housings include keying inserts that are configured to receive reciprocal pins of a mating shroud. The pins may include a generally cylindrical shaft, but with a flat surface portion. The pins are configured to mate into the keying inserts of the module housing such that the flat surface portions are aligned with and mated into reciprocal flat features of the keying inserts. In this manner, the keying inserts ensure that the mating shroud is properly aligned and mated with the module housing. However, typical keying inserts do not provide a positive electrical conductive path for electrostatic discharge. Thus, a sudden electrical surge may pass from the pins and into the module housing, which may damage electrical modules within the module housing. Additionally, typical module housings include keying inserts that are front-loaded and require separate and distinct retaining clips to secure the keying inserts to the module housings, thereby increasing the time and complexity of the manufacturing process.